Woman wins almost £10,000 after ‘unfaithful’ husband fired her

A wife won almost £10,000 in a tribunal after suing her husband for firing her from the pub they ran together.

Jacqueline Herling confronted her spouse Stefan after she discovered CCTV footage of a relationship he was having with another employee.

A tribunal heard Stefan had an affair with a fellow chef at the ‘very successful’ national park pub he ran with wife Jacqueline.

The mum-of-two said she ‘would not set foot in the pub again’ and reduced her work to ‘occasional duties’, the employment tribunal heard.

Mrs Herling had continued to receive her salary for four months after the affair – until her husband issued her with a p45 without her knowledge.

She now successfully sued her partner of 19 years and the family company that owned the pub for unfair and wrongful dismissal, unauthorised pay deductions and victimisation and has been awarded £9,676 in compensation.

The Manchester tribunal heard that Mrs Herling started working part-time behind the bar at The Beehive Inn in Combs, Derbyshire, in 2003.

The hearing was told that the couple got together in 2005, and had their first child in 2007, before marrying the following year.

The family lived above the pub and ran the venue together with Mrs Herling being paid a ‘nominal’ tax-free salary of £9,000 a year.

The tribunal was told on May 30, 2022, Jacqueline confronted her husband when she found he had been having an affair with the sous-chef.

After she did not move out of the pub and kept helping with ‘occasional duties’ such as chopping logs, mowing the lawns and visiting Costco for supplies, they heard.

She was paid £758 per month and told to ‘think bout things’ before making any ‘long-term decisions’. She then began divorce proceedings in July.

At some point that summer Mr Herling spoke to the business’ accountant who said his wife could not be paid a salary if she was no longer working for the pub.

On this advice, the company issued Mrs Herling a P45 at the start of October but her husband only told her about this at the start of November when she asked why she hadn’t received the previous month’s pay.

The tribunal found that Mrs Herling was dismissed in November when she was told about the P45 and was owed a month’s pay for the time when the couple ‘could and should have talked about arrangements further’.

Defending the claim, Mr Herling and the family business argued that his wife ‘resigned’ when she found out about the affair and said she ‘wouldn’t step foot’ in the pub again. The tribunal disagreed.

The panel said: ‘She was very upset that night, and a number of things were said/suggested, in the heat of the moment, none of which were acted upon nor carried through,” the panel said.

‘In light of all the above, the tribunal found that [Mrs Herling] was unfairly dismissed but that any compensation should be limited to a month’s pay, to cover the period in which the parties could and should have talked about arrangements further.’

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